Vladimir Putin 'ordered killing', Litvinenko inquiry hears

[uhnope]

Source: BBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin "personally ordered" the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, the inquiry into the former spy's death has heard. Ben Emmerson QC, for Mr Litvinenko's family, said in his closing statement that Russian state responsibility had been proven "beyond reasonable doubt".

Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina said she believed her husband's "murderers and their paymasters" had "been unmasked". But the Kremlin told the BBC it did not trust the inquiry.

Dissident Mr Litvinenko, 43, drank tea containing a fatal dose of radioactive polonium during a meeting with suspects Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi in London in 2006. The Kremlin wanted Mr Litvinenko dead and provided the poison used to kill him, Mr Emmerson alleged.

Scientific evidence proves Mr Kovtun and Mr Lugovoi killed the former spy, he added. Mr Emmerson told the inquiry Mr Putin was an "increasingly isolated tinpot despot" and a "morally deranged authoritarian".

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33734525

[Charles de Gaudless]

1. Ya THINK?

Jeez!

[7962]

2. This will surely shock, SHOCK a few folks here!

Who will then tell us that THIS is propaganda!
MAybe I'm wrong, but I dont think your average murderer can stop by the store and pick up a bit of radioactive polonium

[yurbud]

3. ordering his own citizens killed and he DIDN'T use a drone?

how passé.

[uhnope]

4. lol. that must be #2 or 3 on the Kremlin TPM.

[yurbud]

5. oh yeah. If we do it, it's okay.

[NuclearDem]

7. Nope.

But pretending that the cases of Litvinenko and al-Awlaki are even close to similar is ridiculous.

[yurbud]

8. we aren't that far yet, but the treatment of dissidents like Manning and Snowden show we don't have

far to go to catch up.

[NuclearDem]

9. Was John Kirikao poisoned?

Has Snowden been shot in his apartment?

Yes, we need better whistleblower protections, but your declaration that we "don't have far to go to catch up" is ridiculous.

[yurbud]

14. Manning and Kirikao have been treated far worse than those who ordered torture and committed other

war crimes on behalf of the wealthy.

When whether your crime is punished or rewarded depends on whether it's a crime for or against the wealthy, we aren't far off from just killing those people.

[NuclearDem]

16. Kirikao, Manning, and Snowden are all still very much alive.

That's far more than can be said for Litvinenko, Politkovskaya, and Nemtsov.

No pathetic attempts at a false equivalence can change that.

[candelista]

17. So what's your point? That we're "better than Putin"?

That would make a great bumper sticker: "America: Better than Putin."

[NuclearDem]

18. No, my point is that the annoying whataboutisms are utterly ridiculous.

And deflecting from Putin assassinating his dissidents by bringing up Snowden and Manning is dishonest.

[christx30]

10. It's not even the same thing.

Snowden faces arrest when or if he comes back to the US. Manning is in prison for crimes for which she was accused. It's not like the government is going to send a guy over there to cut his throat when they're asleep, and call it suicide.
I'm a supporter for both. But we're still using the court systems, and not simply murder.

[Psephos]

13. US has far more covert dirty assassinations on its tally than most realize.

You have to look beyond the official propaganda, but not very far.

Meanwhile, Manning is considered a weakling by US intelligence, and totally neutralized while rotting in prison. Snowden, otoh, is a prime candidate for "suicide." He pissed off the inner circle and is on their short list.

When you strip away the propaganda, there's little operational difference between the Russians and the US against those on their short lists. Throw the Chinese and Brits in there too. And another couple dozen countries.

The court systems are for peons like you and me. The JustUs System is for those who run the show...and make no mistake, it is a show.

[yurbud]

15. our government is extremely selective about who faces the court system. Economic terrorists and

fraudsters on Wall Street did far more damage to America and the world than Snowden, Manning, or Kiriakao.

The banksters dictates to the poorer states in Europe and the rest of the world cause real suffering and even death.

The Bush administration lied about the need for war in Iraq and has been documented approving and even ordering torture.

Those criminals are not only immune from prosecution, they are mostly immune from legislation that would stop their crimes too.

We have a very serious problem in our country and we ought to get our own house in order before we get too indignant about other countries, especially when we have allies whose human rights record is far worse.

[yurbud]

6. lol. that must be #2 or 3 on the corporate shill TPM

[uhnope]

19. It's just that your reply was so ridiculous, as others have tried to explain

Last edited Sat Aug 1, 2015, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

but you won't admit.

Saying it's a ridiculous comparison is not the sign of a corporate shill.

Making the ridiculous comparison is definitely the sign of a Kremlin toady. Fan. Volunteer apologist, whatever.

I mean WTF, we're talking about a man being poisoned in a horrible way by radioactive stuff in his tea, and you're running interference on that? Why would you do such a thing?

[yurbud]

21. Do you think our government really cares how Russia treats its citizens?

They decide whether a country has something they want, then looks for faults to publicize.

I seem to recall something about Pinochet, who was our bitch, car-bombing a Chilean dissident in the US and he was allowed to stay in power for quite some time.

Likewise, when Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles blows up a Cuban airliner, our government didn't seem too concerned.

Or when our fascist allies in Indonesia invaded East Timor, which would be analogous to Russia invading and annexing the Ukraine, which seems to have only happened in the minds of neocons looking to dismember Russia, we didn't rethink our support for those assholes.

If you want to have an honest discussion about geopolitics and bring in the works of Zbigniew Brzezinski or Henry Kissinger, or even what Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson has said about the motives for what we are doing in Russia's part of the world, that's an adult conversation I'd be willing to have.

But whether or not this story of poisoning a dissident is true, it is at best an excuse not a reason for anything, and it is barely a half step above gossip to give it any significance.

[elias49]

22. So true. Thank you for this.

But be prepared to be accused by the super-nationalists on these boards who equate anything Russia with evil incarnate. And anyone who deigns to question our meddling in Eastern Europe is considered a "Pooty-Poot" quisling. (Yes. They get that childish) Thoughtless, but there it is.
Some see only in black and white...like dogs do.

[elias49]

11. Uhnope for the prosecution.

Defense yet to be heard.

[NuclearDem]

12. Defense spikes three of the jurors' tea and slips the judge a few thousand.

[tabasco]

20. Putin is a power-crazed fascist

It will be news when a popular political opponent of Putin's is not assassinated.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/europe/russia-putin-critics/